Today, Thursday, was the day we looked back into history. The first instance was a look back a hundred years ago at the personalities involved in the case of Walter Noel Clement, who was the first case of sickle cell described in the western medical literature. Although Clemens’ case had been worked out by the intern at that hospital in Chicago, it was his boss, Thomas James Herrick that took the credit and got the fame. Nothing new about that, I hear you say. Clement returned to Granada eventually after qualifying, and set up practice in St George, the capital. Strangely, virtually nothing of him survives, except his signature. Not even a picture. So, although we know what his blood looked like, we have no idea about the man himself. We were taken to his graveside by the lecturer, though, who showed us tombstones before and after hurricane. We also went and raided the contents of a tomb that was 3200 years old. During the last year, researchers from Egypt and Europe were able to do detailed examinations of the mummified body of the boy-King Tutankhamun, after which, they concluded that the Boy King had died of malaria. This conclusion has been contested by other experts who now think that it was more likely that sickle cell anemia was the cause of death instead. This mater was brought up at the congress in the context of discussing how long sickle cell has been in African populations.
Sickle cell anemia is dominated by pain, and so a big chunk of today’s session was dedicated to pain and how to deal with it. The major point that was made was that caregivers need to understand the suffering that pain induces in sickle cell patients and to be ready to deal with it. Not treating pain adequately is one of the most serious complaints that sickle cell patients have about the way they are cared for. It seems that there is still a serious need for education among care givers and sickle cell patients deed to be on the frontline to make sure that the required lessons are taught.
Tell Fren Tru
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